Misunderstanding
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: In which, Mirajane has bruises and Happy gets the shock of his life. - One-shot.


Misunderstanding

It was actually a rather boring day around the guild for the most part. Not a lot of people were around. And after the night she had, Mira was actually welcoming it.

Then her sister and her friends had to show up. Which she was happy about, of course, because she'd never be annoyed to have Lisanna around, and Natsu and Lucy were always fun. Happy too.

Erza though…

But all in all, she was actually glad to see them. And when they sat down at the bar just to give her some company on such a slow work day.

The conversation mostly focused on the fact that Natsu and Lucy were arguing over something though it shifted quite a few times to Erza wishing to go out on a job and threatening to do a solo one, leaving them behind.

It was about that time that Lisanna, who was leaning against the bar, noticed an odd marking against her sister's otherwise pale flesh.

"Mirajane," she whispered as, when the woman took to wiping down the bar, the strap of her dress fell down some, revealing a rather dark bruise underneath. "What happened?"

"W-What?"

Lisanna sat up some, pointing at her sister. "You have, like, the biggest bruise ever on your shoulder."

"I…I don't know." She quickly righted herself before shrugging. "It just happened, I guess. I don't…"

"It just looks pretty gnarly," she said, but was just as quickly drug into a conversation with Natsu on whether or not Lucy was acting completely unreasonable about him sneaking into her place and setting traps.

"A bucket of water fell on me yesterday," Lucy shrieked. "But I'm overreacting?"

"If you keep making that noise, I think we can all agree so, yes," Erza remarked.

And just like that, all was forgotten…for a little while.

A few days later had Mira scouring her closet for anything that might cover the newest mark on her flesh, but to no avail. It was too hot for long sleeves, and honestly, she thought that she could figure out an excuse if anyone asked.

But…one just didn't come to her. Mainly because the first person that asked her about the purplish bruise blushing her arm was her younger brother.

"What happened?"

"Noth-"

"Mira," he said, frowning as she tried to walk around him, as she had been heading back to the bar after bringing some people their food, but he caught her arm, right under where the bruise laid. "These are finger marks. Someone grabbed you. Who?"

"You, currently."

"Mirajane-"

"Elf, it's nothing." She easily slipped from his grasp, giggling slightly. "Why are you so concerned? Who could hurt me? I'm an S-Class wizard. Or did you forget?"

"Of course not, but-"

"I have to work," she told him. "What'd you come in for? To look at the board? Take a job? Well hurry. I see Natsu and Happy over there. They might take a good one."

He gave her one last glance before turning away. And even though it was a scorcher outside, she forced herself to wear a jacket the rest of the day.

But they just got harder to hide from there. He was unrelenting. From her arms to her legs, to even a really painful one to her back (long story) she was covered in bruises. And considering how fair her skin was, that was kinda a big deal.

Once when she and Lisanna were both getting ready one morning in the bathroom (living in a cramped house with two other siblings made time management hard), her younger sister happened to get a glimpse of the worst one yet, the deep, yellowish one on her back. And considering as far as she knew, Mirajane no longer trained much less went out on jobs, she was more than just concerned.

"You both are making a bigger deal about this than need be," she found herself telling her siblings as she had since that morning. At the moment, she was at the bar, trying to open up, but they were proving to be problematic. They had been hounding her the whole time since leaving the house, trying to get out of her exactly who she'd been spending all her time with and where all the bruises were coming from so suddenly.

"Mira," Lisanna frowned as she sat at the bar across from her. "Come on. Just tell us, at least, who it is that you've been sneaking out to see."

"I'll kill him!" Elfman growled. Mirajane only rolled her eyes as she continued to prep the guildhall for opening.

"I'm not sneaking out, Lisanna," she told her bluntly. "I'm the oldest. You two don't question me."

"When you-"

"I'm fine, alright? I'm an S-Class wizard. You think that-"

"I think that if you don't give Elf a name soon, he'll just kill every other guy you come into contact with."

Elfman nodded his head. "It's true."

But he didn't. Mirajane dodged all questions and when she did respond to them, it was usually with the reasoning that she didn't report to either of her siblings. They did to her.

"You really have that big of a bruise, Mira?" Lucy asked when she arrived with Natsu and Happy. Lisanna was still keeping up about the whole thing and, honestly, Mira had had enough.

"No."

"Yes," Lisanna kept up. "You really-"

"Lisanna, enough." Mira gave her a death glare. "I mean it."

"If you would just tell me where you got-"

"I'm not going to. Because it's none of your-"

"You smell like Laxus," Natsu announced with a slight frown. "A lot like him."

"How do you-"

He was seated in front of her at the bar and took a deeper sniff. "Is he around?"

"No," Elfman said before taking to glaring around. "Is that who you were with, Mirajane?"

"You don't-"

"Were you guys training?" Lisanna asked slowly. "Or… I mean, Laxus is mean, but-"

"It's nothing," she insisted. "Really. I-"

And her bad luck only continued from there. Because just at that moment, an overly enthusiastic Thunder God Tribe walked through the doors, happy because with them was their fearless idol.

"You!"

"Elfman!" Mira was downright panicky then. Reaching across the bar, she grabbed Lisanna by the arm, pulling her closer.

"Mira, he's not really going to-"

"Stop him."

"No. If Laxus is the one that-"

"Lisanna," she growled, sounding like one of her demon forms then as she stared darkly into her sister's eyes. "Laxus didn't…hit me. We were… We…"

She couldn't help the blush and Lisanna couldn't help, but to know exactly what she meant. Lucy, who was right next to the other girl, put a hand over her mouth as she caught on.

"You and Lax-"

"Just stop Elf- Hey! Natsu!" Mira frowned as he too rushed over to Laxus. But Elfman got there first. Oh no. Now it was all going to fall apart.

"I need to talk to you," Elfman grumbled to Laxus as he approached. Evergreen, who was with him, thought he was talking to her and frowned.

"Well, I don't want to talk to you. So-"

"Not you," he told her gruffly. Then he glared at Laxus. "You."

He looked unimpressed before speaking softly to Freed.

"Take care of this."

When he tried to walk by though, he was attacked on the other side by Natsu.

"Hey!" Bickslow fielded that one, dragging the Salamander away from his boss. Laxus was about done at that point, his blank face slowly growing annoyed.

"What is your problem?" Ever complained as she too had to take to holding Elfman back, who was trying to get at Laxus. "What-"

"You beat up Mirajane," Natsu said as he rubbed at his head which was being pelted by Bickslow's babies. "And-"

"What are you talking about?" Laxus took a step back before adjusting his headphones.

"She smells just like you and has bruises and…and… Let's fight!" Natsu, already over the whole Mirajane thing, tried to get around Bickslow again, but the other guy wasn't letting him through. And at that point, neither was Freed.

"Elfman, enough," Evergreen said as she shoved him back. It would have been impossible, given their differences in size, but Ever was kinda like Lisanna to him. Even without thinking he'd become weak for them. "What-"

"I didn't beat her up," Laxus told them all before heading over to a table to take a seat. "I fucked her, dumbasses. Now Freed, go get me a beer."

"Y-You what?" Even Evergreen stopped then to glance back at him. He only kicked his feet up on the table.

"Never mind, Freed," he said simply as Mira came over. "Hey! Bring me a-"

"You idiot!" She shoved his feet off the table and everyone took a step back. When Mirajane was pissed off, it was best to just run for cover. "I told you not to slam me up against that last night. I got, like, this huge bruise on my-"

"I thought you liked that?"

"Lisanna saw and now-"

"And now they know. Now they all know. So just go get me a beer- Mira!"

She shoved his feet back down when he tried to kick them up again.

"Woman," he growled. "You're really getting on my nerves."

"No one was supposed to know. You said-"

"And I lied. Besides, Mira, I'm tired of going to dinner out of town. I'd much rather just have dinner here." He stood then to glare down at her. Elfman, who'd been in a state of shock before, bucked up then. Was he going to do it? Was he going to try to hit his sister? "Now we can. So is this really-"

"I didn't want-"

"Look," he told her before glancing around at Elfman and then to Lisanna. "I've been screwing your sister for months. And sometimes, Mira likes it to hurt."

"Laxus!"

"Ew!" Elfman was red. "Turn me to stone, Ever. Please."

She only took to fanning herself with her hand fan, staring hard at Laxus and Mirajane. "This just got interesting."

Freed hung his head. "This is most embarrassing, Laxus. Perhaps-"

"Would someone make the stupid dolls stop flying against my head?" Natsu yelled as Bickslow focused more on making his babies do that. Lucy giggled at the sight, but Lisanna was still staring wide eyed at her sister.

"So see? Big deal." Laxus went to take his seat once more. "I'm going to keep screwing her and, as long as she likes it, I'm going to cover her with even more bruises. So all of you shut the hell up and someone get me a damn beer. And Mira, now that they all know, do you want to go out to lunch today?"

The end of that was said in the same rumbling tone as the rest of his words, but Mirajane heard it and paused. Slowly, she took to nodding.

"Good. Now get me a beer."

And things began to calm down from there. Slowly, Natsu got Bickslow to call off his wooden babies and Ever took Elfman for a walk in hopes that would help him knock the rest of the day from his memory. Lisanna though only stayed by the bar with Lucy to await Mirajane to explain more.

She didn't.

"I kinda feel bad," Levy, who was over in the corner of the guildhall with Gajeel and Lily, whispered. "I mean, they sort of just got outed for no reason."

Gajeel was only sitting there, tuning his guitar in vain, not knowing he'd only be booed off the stage before he got on it. "Servers 'em right. Hiding things."

"I guess so."

Lily only stood there, on the table, bowing his own head. "We all owe Laxus an apology at the least. For thinking that he is some violent barbarian. If Mirajane likes him, then ergo, he must actually be an upstanding person!"

Levy giggled, reaching out to scratch behind Pantherlily's ears, much to the Exceed's pleasure.

"You're right," she said.

"Of course my cat's right," Gajeel grumbled. "He's right about everything! If Lily doesn't think Laxus is violent-"

Just then though, Happy, who had been following Carla around most of the day, took to flying over to where the Thunder God Tribe was seated. He just couldn't help himself as he put a hand against his mouth and took to pointing.

"You're in love," he sang. "You _love_ Miraja-"

Almost like a slight of hand trick, Laxus barely moved as he shot a bolt of lightening straight into the cat, making the blue Exceed drop to the ground immediately.

"Happy!" Natsu and Lucy screamed, rushing towards him, Lisanna calling out to him as well.

"Laxus," Mira yelled, hands finding their way to her hip as he only rolled his eyes and turned his music up louder.

"Perhaps," Lily said slowly as he took to holding his ears down and jumping into Levy's lap for protection from the Thunder God, "I spoke too soon."


End file.
